Tuesday, May 15, 2007

SAP and Novell Deliver Expanded Linux Support Options for Customers

Another smart move for Novell (and another bummer for Red Hat)

SAP AG (NYSE: SAP) and Novell (NASDAQ: NOVL) today announced that they have extended their relationship to offer a new joint support solution for customers who run their SAP® applications on SUSE® Linux Enterprise Server from Novell®. With today's announcement, customers who run their SAP applications on SUSE Linux Enterprise Server now have a single support entry point, from the operating system through the application, to streamline resolution of support incidents, reduce complexity and lower the total cost of ownership. Branded as “SUSE Linux Enterprise Server Priority Support for SAP applications,” the offering is available starting today and is a maintenance and support package provided by Novell that will be integrated through the SAP® Solution Manager application management solution into the SAP global support backbone for managing the entire life cycle of SAP applications. Through this agreement, SAP continues its commitment to deliver value to customers who choose to run open source and commercial software based on open standards. The announcement was made at SAPPHIRE® '07 Vienna, SAP's international customer conference being held in Vienna, Austria, May 14-16.